iPads in the elementary classroom

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Permalink Reply by Melissa S on June 7, 2011 at 7:16pm

We just received a set of 30 iPads for our classroom as of June 1st! My coteacher and I are piloting the first iPad implementation in our school next year, so this month is pretty much a trial period before the summer. I would love to know more about what you used to track data and what apps you felt work best for reading. Good luck with your presentation!

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Permalink Reply by Sara Getting on June 7, 2011 at 10:26pm

That's wonderful!  You and your students will have so much fun with them!  As far as tracking data, there were several sources.  Our elementary school has used AIMSweb Data collection for many years.  This made it very easy for us to track nonsense word fluency, phoneme segmentation, and CBM (words read per minute) from the 2009-2010 groups to the 2010-2011 groups.  We also have a list of 100 first grade sight words that should be mastered by the end of the year, that was also a good source of comparison data.  Finally, we compared scores of weekly comprehension tests embedded into the reading curriculum that we used.  We knew we'd be doing this in the fall, so we made sure to collect each of these specific data pieces before last year's school year ended.  For all of the above areas, we made efforts to use iPads to practice skills in any way possible.  

 

For practicing high frequency words, we found a lot of great apps!  This was by far the best use of the device in our action research project.  Some of our favorites were k-3 sight words, 100 sight words, and words.  A few other favs for building words would be Clifford's Be Big, alphabet car, pocket phonic, word cub, word families, and ABC tracer.     

 

For fluency, we used voice memos and eventualy... talking tom.  Yes, sounds silly, but if he interrupts... it means you should go back and try again to use "smooth, easy reading!"

 

For word meanings of vocabulary, we ended up making up our own games like concentration or iPad mingle with drawing apps such as writing pad, glow draw, whiteboard, or glitter doodle.  Older students could use dictionary.com for word meanings.  We did not find a lot of apps out there that would help 1st graders with vocabulary meanings.  If anyone knows of any, please share!

 

For comprehension, we really struck out.  There were a few recommended apps, hopwever, they were paid apps and towards the end we had to be careful of our spending.  We ended up using our subscription of readinga-z.com to read leveled stories (which was neat - they were all in pdf so it worked pretty well) which also had created comprehension quizzes available.  In our experience, the iPad wasn't the greatest tool for practicing comprehension skills.  Again, if anyone has ideas, please do share!!  =)

 

One unintended outcome we discovered is the motivation factor.  As I mentioned before, we had the two lowest reading groups (30 students in all) and the iPads were wonderful for a handful of students that displayed behavior issues with other teachers.  Not with us!  We did have a Sp. Ed. teacher come in and do a series of time on task data collections.  She focused on one student per class for 10 minutes on a non-iPad day and would come back on Friday (best day to fit it into our schedule), which was iPad day.  We found significant gains in the average time on task for iPad days vs. non-iPad days.

 

All in all, our scores were higher this year in all areas; some were more significant differences than others.  Using iPads for our (at-risk) first grade learners definitely made an impact.

 

Since you're just getting going, Melissa V, here's a link to my first attempt at a livebinder... It will have some other app ideas that weren't mentioned above.  Please keep us posted on how things are going for your deployment!  It's so exciting to learn from others!

 

http://livebinders.com/play/play/109052

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Permalink Reply by Erica Shepherd on June 7, 2011 at 10:16pm

I am definitely interested in keeping up with your results. I recently applied for a grant through the school system in which I am employed and will be receiving 10 ipad 2. I am also interested to know what programs you used with the students and how much time they spent with them a week.

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Permalink Reply by Sara Getting on July 5, 2011 at 12:02pm

Erica,

We used them "occasionally" during the week, with the largest, most significant time block saved for Fridays, which were my "small group" instruction/assessment days.  The other students, not in my group, worked on a specified list of apps with a paraprofessional overseeing them.  I would have loved to have used them more, but after all, the curriculum had to be taught as well.  =)

 

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Permalink Reply by Allison Hitchcock on June 30, 2011 at 9:00am

I know as an educator I would struggle with allowing them to be used in the classroom in their current state. If Apple or the school would establish a block for certain hours of the day to restrict the use of certain apps during school hours. When a block like that is created than the use of the ipads at school would be an excellent resource. I would consider only allowing 3-5th grade students using them for protection of the product.

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Permalink Reply by Lynn Johnson on June 30, 2011 at 9:32am

I believe iPads would be great in classrooms.  Some schools in Kentucky are in the process of getting them also.  I teach in a hospital setting and there isn't always the space needed to have big computers but the students there benefit from them just as much if not more so than regular schools.  The elementary is similar in that they are at that critical stage of development and forming effective habits.  Get them - you won't regret it.  Cheap way to have a lot of computers in the classroom too.

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Permalink Reply by Logan Thresher on June 30, 2011 at 10:04am

iPads will help them enjoy reading! Anything technology related is a bonus for the students because this is the world that is the "norm" to them. It will also help with them carrying excessive  amounts of books and leading to pain. They are also cheaper to replace then textbooks and it is as easy as a software update instead of a new version of texts to replace.

 

Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Ryan K. Shetler on June 30, 2011 at 1:06pm

If textbook companies and apple would get together then ipads would be the best thing ever.   I hope they get together soon.  Negative of ipads is flash doesn't work on them but that will soon change (google is working on the fix).  You will want an app that can connect all the ipads together as a teacher can see what everyone is doing on the ipads.  On the mac computers you use remote control desktop.

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Permalink Reply by Katie Muhtaris on July 8, 2011 at 5:31pm

I'm going one to one next year with my fifth graders.  Our primary team used them last year.  You may want to check in on their blog and this other one too.  I've also started writing iPad posts on my blog as well and will continue to do so throughout the year.  There is information about Apps, lessons, and other important items.  Good luck!

 

http://ipadsatburley.blogspot.com/

http://teachinglikeits2999.blogspot.com/

http://literacyspark.wordpress.com/

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Permalink Reply by Sara Getting on July 9, 2011 at 10:02pm

Katie, thanks for the excellent resources!  Keep up the good work!

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Permalink Reply by bill smoot on July 19, 2011 at 8:06pm

     For me, the alpha and omega on the technology issue is contained in a statement made by a first grade teacher in Minnesota whom I interviewd for my book, Conversations with Great Teachers (Indiana University Press). She said, "Technology is only as good as as the person who is using it to teach the lesson."

     I am afraid that much of the hoopla about technology ignores the fact that nothing have ever has, does, or will succeed like great teaching. Certainly, technology can have advantages when used well, but I think it is sometimes seen as a substitute for great teaching.

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Permalink Reply by Ethan on July 25, 2011 at 10:49pm

I have used an ipad not with a student but with one of the kids that my mother works with. He is a 17 yr old on the Autism spectrum and has several other disabilities mainly pertaining to cognitive challenges. His parents gave him an ipad for christmas and after some time, he figured out how to work pretty much anything he is interested in. I must say though, it is definetly not indestructable.

When being used by some students with what I would call destructive tendencies, an ipad can still be helpful but it might not be advisable to leave them with it.

I sat with this teen for about an hour and watched him move from youtube video and from app to app, many of them being his interactive books, he really showed know problem with navigation and it was very exciting to see. 

 

The only negative aspect of it would be how delicate it is due to the fact that it is a 500 dollar piece of tech.

If you could pair it with a very sturdy cover that would be able to absorb some impact then it would alleviate a significant amount of worry for the teacher,parent, caregiver.( really any student at all using an ipad could cause some damage to it if not being supervised)

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